MESSAGE from the PRESIDENT

With the Vision of Our Founder as a Touchstone

Advancing into its second century of operation, the TOTO Group conducts corporate activities with the aim of continuing to be a beneficial presence to society at large and to the earth's environment. Each and every employee is imbued with our founder's vision of providing a healthy and civilized way of life. We aim to contribute to the advancement of society by always placing the provision of high-quality products and customer satisfaction above all else, and maintaining the spirit of service. The conviction inherited at our founding is the heart of our manufacturing as well as the core of corporate management. Providing customers throughout the world with the security and reliability of the TOTO brand, my mission, as president of the TOTO Group, is to continue to "Create an enriched and more comfortable lifestyle and culture built on our plumbing products," as stated in the TOTO Group Corporate Philosophy.

In Pursuit of Innovativeness and Beauty

The TOTO Group was manufacturing seated flush toilets at a time when public sewage systems were not yet widespread in Japan, and it has been instrumental in promoting healthy lifestyles. The TOTO Group has opened the door to new lifestyles by creating products such as the WASHLET, the prefabricated bathroom module, and other bathroom and kitchen plumbing products.The TOTO Group is pursuing the development of beautiful products sophisticated in design and functionality. Emphasizing design characteristics means rising to the challenges of increasingly complex manufacturing demands by overcoming production issues one by one. Beauty is the crystallization of enthusiasm and ingenuity in the design of individual parts and production technology.

Creation of the Remodeling Market in Japan

The Japanese market, which accounts for roughly 70% of the TOTO Group's net sales, is seeing a decline in new home construction and moving toward a stock-based society, one that focuses on the use of existing assets. Nevertheless, there is still rising demand for more comfortable lifestyles.The TOTO Group pioneered development of the remodeling market in Japan and continues to lead its advancement by actively providing remodeling solutions that promise new lifestyles beyond customer expectations. To help customers gain a clearer sense of their options, we have established throughout Japan showrooms that let customers see, feel, and experience remodeling possibilities. Together with contractors, which are in direct contact with customers, we strive to show customers how bathroom and kitchen environments can be made more comfortable.Furthermore, TOTO will be providing plumbing equipment as an Official Partner of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. And, in light of the Japanese government's goal of increasing to 60 million the annual number of foreign visitors to Japan by 2030, we are actively moving forward with efforts to refurbish or newly install bathroom and other facilities for hotels, public buildings, and other types of accommodations. We are taking this action because we believe bathrooms throughout the country are also showrooms for the advanced development of these facilities in Japan. And we believe that having foreign visitors to Japan experience the beauty of bathroom culture here is an important aspect of hospitality in a country intent on making itself a prime tourism destination.

Making TOTO Indispensable Across the Globe

In pursuing business development on a global scale, we are striving to enhance the comfort, hygiene, safety and security of bathroom and kitchen spaces throughout the world by working to develop products that bring a new sense of prosperity to the daily lives of customers in countries and regions each with their own unique environments and cultures. Our ability to save water in compliance with strict water-per-flush regulations, technology for maintaining clean surfaces by breaking down and removing even invisible contaminants, and design in pursuit of beauty have been lauded even in markets across the globe.Nearly all TOTO customers use our products for 20 or even 30 years. Our relationships with customers, therefore, really begin once a purchase has been made. It is not enough for us to focus on winning strong reviews of our products; we must also provide solid after-sales service so that customers around the world, like customers in Japan, will remain pleased with our products for decades to come.

Creating Another Century of Success

Business activities come to nothing in the absence of cooperation and co-creation with customers, business partners, shareholders, and the entire broad array of our stakeholders. For the TOTO Group, the primary actors are individual employees who take it upon themselves to think of how they can best contribute to the benet of customers and society. That is why we will continue to place great emphasis on human resource development and will continue to "Create an enriched and more comfortable lifestyle and culture built on our plumbing products."We aim to continue to provide products and services that will make customers, not only in Japan but throughout the world, happy that they have chosen TOTO and want to choose TOTO again in the future. Looking to our next 100 years, each and every one of our employees will act in ways that boost the TOTO brand and enhance our corporate value.